The Pride in Wrongdoing

*All names in this post have been changed in form of respect and privacy*

Today we had a double bloc of Spanish, and nearing the end of it, you can already guess that our teacher was getting frustrated from all of our little misbehaviours. And so, with Ms. Kayla's mood already in a downfall, one student decided to raise his voice above everyone else's, which resulted in some furious yelling from our teacher's part.

After 10-15 minutes, when the situation was almost forgotten and the class was chattering away, Ms. Kayla grabbed our attention and says, "I'd just like to apologize to Andy for yelling at him. I realize now that he was not the only one that was talking loudly, and singling him out was the wrong thing to do. I know that I'm not perfect and sometimes I do lose my patience, but I really try my best." Looking back it didn't make much of an impact on my classmates and I, but now that I have had a chance to think about it, I now realize just how meaningful what Ms. Kayla said.


It's one thing to realize your wrongdoing, it's a whole other to acknowledge it. Ms. Kayla acknowledged her mistake, announced it to the whole class, and also apologized for it. And I truly believe that takes a lot of courage.

Sometimes our pride stumps our conscience. Our pride can lead us to take a shortcut to avoid a blow to our short-lived dignity. But doing what's right, to acknowledge our wrongdoing... Now that's pride worthy.  But just like Ms. Kayla, we are not perfect people. At times, we will utterly refuse to recognize our wrongdoing. But that doesn't signify that we are bad-natured people, it just means we are still learning to leave our pride behind, when the moment calls.